Deer Lake hotel owners win Canada Business of the Year award DEER LAKE KATHERINE HUDSON The Western Star

Pacrim Hospitality Services Inc. is currently building a 91-room hotel off the Trans-Canada Highway in Deer Lake. — Star photo by Katherine Hudson

The company building the 91-room Holiday Inn Express in Deer Lake just acquired another item to add to its resume.

Pacrim Hospitality Services Inc. received the multiple-unit Canada Business of the Year Award this week. The Tourism Industry Association of Canada announced the award recipients of the National Awards for Tourism Excellence Tuesday in Saint John, New Brunswick.

Pacrim Hospitality, based in Bedford, N.S. was up for the same award last year. CEO of Pacrim Hospitality and native of Corner Brook, Glenn Squires, said the company is extremely pleased for the acknowledgement this year.

“It’s quite an honour for us,” Squires said. “We operate in every province in Canada except Manitoba and up in the Northwest Territories so certainly we’re national in scope,” said Squires.

Pacrim currently owns and operates two hotels in Newfoundland, a Super 8 in St. John’s and Gander River Outfitters in Gander Bay.

Squires said along with the property in Deer Lake, the company is planning to develop several other properties in Newfoundland and Labrador.

“We’re very keen on Deer Lake. We’ve been looking at the market up there for a little while.  Deer Lake, we think, is important because of the airport and the central location to the Northern Peninsula and people that are coming in from White Bay and Green Bay from the west coast. We think that the concept is going to go over very well,” said Squires.

“We think that this is going to be good for the community. It’s primarily directed at travel within the province more so than travel from outside the province because that’s where most of our business is going to come from. Deer Lake is a key location for us,” he said.

Forty-two finalists participated in the awards’ ceremony on Tuesday.  There were 14 categories with three finalists to a category. The awards were presented as part of Canada’s Tourism Leadership Summit.